|
60163 ''Tornado'' is a mainline steam locomotive built in Darlington, England. Completed in 2008, ''Tornado'' was the first such locomotive built in the United Kingdom since ''Evening Star'', the last steam locomotive built by British Railways in 1960. It is the only example of an LNER Peppercorn Class A1 locomotive in existence, the entirety of the original production batch having been scrapped without preservation. The locomotive's namesake is the Panavia Tornado, a combat aircraft flown by the Royal Air Force. Construction of ''Tornado'' began in 1994, and was based at Darlington Works for most of the project, while numerous components such as the boiler were manufactured elsewhere. The project was financed through fundraising initiatives such as public donations and sponsorship deals; further funding came from hiring out ''Tornado'' itself for special rail services. Construction was completed in 2008, and full certification of the locomotive was achieved in January 2009. Having been designed with compliance to modern safety and certification standards, ''Tornado'' has been conducting passenger services on the UK rail network and on mainline-connected heritage railways since 2008. ==Overview== The locomotive was built by the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, a charitable trust founded in 1990 to build Tornado and possibly further locomotives. ''Tornado'' was conceived as an evolution of the LNER Peppercorn Class A1, incorporating improvements that would have been likely had steam continued, and changes for cost, safety, manufacturing and operational benefits, while replicating the original design's sound and appearance. ''Tornado'', completely new-built, is considered the 50th Peppercorn A1, numbered next in the class after 60162, ''Saint Johnstoun'', built in 1949. The 49 original Peppercorn A1s were built in Doncaster and Darlington for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). ''Tornado'' was built in the trust's Darlington works. The original 49 locomotives were scrapped by 1966 after an average service of 15 years. None survived into preservation, and ''Tornado'' fills a gap in the classes of restored steam locomotives that used to operate on the East Coast Main Line. ''Tornado'' moved under her own power for the first time on 29 July 2008 at Darlington, and then spent two months at the preserved Great Central Railway double-track tourist railway in Loughborough, where she was tested up to and operated her first passenger train. ''Tornado'' then moved to the National Railway Museum (NRM) in York for three test runs on the main line up to . After repainting from works grey into LNER Apple Green, ''Tornado'' was approved for mainline passenger operation. On 31 January 2009 she hauled her first passenger trip on the main line, ''The Peppercorn Pioneer'', from York to Newcastle and back. By hauling various A1 Trust railtours, charters and other activities, ''Tornado'' will begin to recoup the estimated £800,000 debt from the project, which cost around £3 million. With a shorter rake of eleven coaches compared with the original Peppercorn A1's usage, ''Tornado'' is expected to achieve contemporary mainline speeds. Theoretically capable of , ''Tornado'' may in the future gain permission to run at ,〔(Railway Magazine, February 2009, page 57 )〕 making her the fastest steam locomotive on the British main line. Once on the main line, ''Tornado'' is not expected to leave it again until its ten-year fire-tube boiler re-certification in late 2018. On 21 June 2009, ''Tornado'' featured in the ''Top Gear'' Race to the North, coming second to a car in a three-way race from London to Edinburgh, against a 1949 Jaguar XK120 sports car and a 1949 Vincent Black Shadow motorbike. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「LNER Peppercorn Class A1 60163 Tornado」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|